The last time Lincoln City reached the FA Cup fourth round in 1976, Graham Taylor was the manager.

It was the start of Taylor's rise that took in making Watford into a feared First Division side, three years at Aston Villa before his ill-rated tenure as England boss.

Current Lincoln manager Danny Cowley may not be setting his sights so high, but he is still desperate for his National League table-toppers to put paid to Championship Ipswich after this draw at Portman Road.

In 1976, former England manager Graham Taylor was in charge of Lincoln City

Current manager Danny Cowley has won over supporters who have had a really tough time

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The Imps were four minutes from winning their third round tie before Tom Lawrence struck to salvage a replay for Mick McCarthy's team after Theo Robinson had twice put Lincoln ahead.

Cowley's Lincoln were backed by 4,838 supporters on Saturday, which was the largest away attendance in the FA Cup at Portman Road since the 1990s when the ground became all-seater.

Cowley, who last year juggled his job as manager of Braintree as well as a PE teacher, expects his players to repay the fans' loyalty in the replay a week tomorrow.

Cowley embraces tricky winger Nathan Arnold - who was one of players to make a difference

Theo Robinson was almost the hero for Lincoln City when he got a second to put them 2-1 up

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It has been 41 years since Lincoln City made the fourth round of the FA Cup. They last did it when former England manager Graham Taylor was manager at Sincil Bank.

He said: 'We wanted to give the supporters something [at Ipswich], the supporters of this football club are magnificent and they have been starved of success and I think they've seen something in our players and something in the group which they can connect with,' he said.

'They see the hard work and determination and for a non-League club to bring close to 5,000 supporters away from home says everything about them. If we can be half as good as our support is then we'll be one hell of a team.

'I feel sorry for our ticket girls because they are under a lot of pressure at the moment because we've sold more home tickets recently than we ever expected to.'

Mick McCarthy's side sat back for large periods of the match which Lincoln controlled

Tom Lawrence scored for Ipswich late on to deny the Imps a famous win and force a replay

In 1976, Lincoln, who went on to win the old Fourth Division that season, beat Blackburn in the third round before losing to West Brom at the next stage.

Cowley has a chance of repeating Taylor's success but admits he isn't looking too far ahead.

He said: 'We're respectful of Mick McCarthy. He's a manager who's managed in the Premier League, he's managed in the World Cup and he's got a fantastic set of players so we're not getting ahead of ourselves.

'We know how tough the replay will be but it's a game that we'll look forward to because we want to keep having these examinations because these games allow us to grow.'

Danny and Nicky Cowley both applaud the 4,838 supporters who followed them to Ipswich